If you’ve ever hired (or thought about hiring) an SEO specialist, you’ve probably asked the same question every business owner asks me: “What do you actually do?”
It’s a fair question. SEO gets a bad reputation because too many agencies hide behind jargon and vague monthly reports. So here’s my real, no-fluff process. The exact steps I take when I start an SEO campaign for a local business, from the first phone call to the monthly report.
1. Discovery Call: Understanding Your Business Goals
Every campaign starts with a conversation, not a spreadsheet. Before touching a single keyword or line of code, I need to understand:
- What your business actually does and who your ideal customer is
- What “success” looks like for you. More phone calls, more bookings, more foot traffic, more online sales
- Which locations or service areas matter most
- What’s worked (and what hasn’t) in past marketing efforts
SEO without clear goals is just guesswork. This call sets the direction for everything that follows.
2. Technical SEO Audit: Finding What’s Broken
Next, I crawl your entire website to find the technical issues that are quietly blocking your rankings. This includes:
- Page speed and Core Web Vitals
- Mobile usability issues
- Broken links, redirect chains, and crawl errors
- Indexing problems (pages Google can’t see or is ignoring)
- Site structure and URL issues
You can have the best content in the world, but if Google can’t crawl and index your site properly, none of it matters. This audit is the foundation everything else is built on.
3. Keyword Research: Finding What Your Customers Actually Search For
Once the technical foundation is assessed, I dig into keyword research not guessing what people might search, but finding what they’re actually typing into Google. This means:
- Identifying high-intent, buyer-ready search terms
- Uncovering local search phrases specific to your city or service area
- Mapping keywords to the stages of your customer’s buying journey
- Prioritizing terms that are realistic to rank for based on your site’s current authority
The goal isn’t just traffic. It’s the right traffic: people actively searching for what you offer.
4. Competitor Analysis: Seeing Who’s Winning and Why
I then take a close look at the businesses currently outranking you. This reveals:
- What content they’re publishing that you’re missing
- Their backlink profile and where their authority comes from
- Gaps in their strategy you can exploit
- Realistic benchmarks for what it’ll take to compete
Competitor analysis turns SEO from guesswork into a strategic game plan.
5. On-Page Optimization: Cleaning Up the Fundamentals
With research in hand, I move into on-page optimization, tightening up the elements Google and your visitors interact with directly:
- Title tags and meta descriptions
- Header structure (H1s, H2s, H3s)
- Content clarity and keyword placement
- Internal linking between related pages
- Image alt text and site accessibility
This is where a website starts sending clear, consistent signals about what it’s about and who it serves.
6. Content Plan: Building Around Real Search Intent
SEO isn’t a one-time fix. It’s ongoing content built around what your customers are actually searching for. I build a roadmap of pages and blog posts designed to:
- Answer the specific questions your customers ask
- Target keywords at every stage of the buyer journey
- Establish your business as the authority in your niche
- Continuously expand your site’s visibility over time
7. Local SEO & Google Business Profile Optimization
For local businesses like contractors, dentists, HVAC companies, roofers, restaurants, law firms, realtors, this step is often the single biggest lever for growth. It includes:
- Fully optimizing your Google Business Profile (categories, services, photos, posts)
- Building consistent NAP (name, address, phone) citations across directories
- Generating and managing customer reviews
- Optimizing for the local map pack, not just organic search
If most of your customers come from your local area, this step alone can dramatically increase calls and foot traffic.
8. Link Building: Earning Real Authority Signals
Google trusts websites that other reputable sites vouch for. I focus on earning quality backlinks through:
- Outreach to relevant, authoritative sites in your industry
- Local partnerships and directory listings
- Digital PR and content that naturally attracts links
- Avoiding spammy, low-quality link schemes that can get you penalized
This is slow, deliberate work, but it’s what separates sites that rank temporarily from sites that rank consistently.
9. Monthly Reporting & Iteration
SEO isn’t “set it and forget it.” Every month, I review:
- Keyword rankings and movement
- Organic traffic trends
- Leads, calls, and conversions generated
- What’s working, what isn’t, and what we’re adjusting next
Transparent reporting means you always know exactly what you’re getting for your investment, no vague “trust the process” answers.
There’s no magic trick to SEO. It’s a system: research, fix the technical foundation, optimize what’s on the page, build authority, and refine based on real data repeated consistently over time.
Contact Now!
If you run a local business and want more calls, bookings, or foot traffic from search engines, contact me and I’ll walk you through exactly how this process would work for your business.
